Prompt #19: Turn a blind eye
(Warning: Intimate scene)
———————–
I was on duty the day the judgment was pronounced and we learnt the Claudia family had won again.
I saw Marcus go pale and then still… a stillness that lasted the rest of the day and was still there when I was relieved for the evening. I wouldn’t see him again until the next afternoon and my heart bled at the thought of not being able to comfort him in any way, not while there were people around.
I went home with a heavy spirit and sat down after dinner wrapped in my favorite blanket, the one my mother had knitted for me, lost in my thoughts, until I heard a heavy knocking on the door.
I looked up, surprised to see it was night already and I was astonished to find Marcus, a fist raised to knock again, when I opened the door.
He looked at me with a weary expression that I never saw before. “May I come in, Kit?”
Unable to say a word, I let him in and closed the door. Then I realized he was alone.
“What are you doing here? Where is Aurelius? It’s his shift tonight.”
He was looking at my home with eyes that were gradually going softer, as he took in the simple furniture, the mementos of my life with my parents, the little kitchen where I cooked my meal that night.
“I like your home, Kit… it’s so warm. You must have been very happy here.”
I walked in front of him, unsure of what was happening and asked him again where his bodyguard was.
“I ditched him.” Marcus said absently. “He thinks I’m sleeping but I learnt a long time ago how to slip out without being seen. I needed to see you.”
I sucked in a breath and anger exploded inside me. “You did what? Do you know how stupid that was? How dangerous? You can’t do stuff like this! He’ll go frantic if he finds out you’re gone!”
He waved my concerns away with a hand and that just angered me more. “He’ll raise the alarm, you will be informed, I will leave and you will find me ten minutes later wandering about like the idiot I am. End of emergency.”
“You… you…” I was at a loss for words, what was he thinking? Why would he do something like that?
Marcus sighed and his shoulders drooped. “There is nobody out there gunning for me tonight, Kit… they are all celebrating. He walked free. It was all for nothing.”
It was a strangled whisper, a defeated tone I never heard from him and my anger melted like snow.
“Oh Marcus…” I murmured. I led him on the chair and labored in the kitchen for some minutes before coming back with hot tea and some biscuits.
“Here, warm up.” I sat down with him as he slowly put sugar in his tea and sipped at it.
“Sometimes I wonder,” he murmured, without raising his gaze, “why do we even keep trying. You all went to great lengths to make sure I got to that trial alive. Weeks of hard work, of getting hurt… just for the judges to turn a blind eye and let the bastard go.”
I sighed, sad to the core. “Sometimes the system…”
“They were bribed.” Marcus interrupted me, putting the cup down. “I know they were. There’s no way they would have let him go otherwise.”
“Yes, you’re probably right.” I didn’t know what else to say. What else was there after all? I knew that had to be the case.
“Do you want to know how I know?” He raised his eyes and they were full of rage now. “Because, at the beginning, they tried to bribe me too. They offered me so much money, I never saw that amount in my life… and probably never will again. So tell me now, Kit… how stupid am I? I could have saved us all this hell and the end result would have been the same.”
I shook my head and couldn’t help but to take his hand into mine. I needed the contact, and so did he. “No. You’re not stupid. You’re one of the good ones, Marcus… one of the ones we need to keep this nation great. To keep it growing. Where will we end if everyone is corrupt?”
“Where?” He laughed, bitterly. “It’s already going to end that way. There’s no hope. Why not go with the flow?”
“Don’t talk like that!” I stood up and walked around the table, to his side. “You can still make a difference.”
“No, I can’t.” He shook his head, standing up as well. “And now I know it.”
Taking my hand in his, he caressed it with slow circles. “One of the good ones? It doesn’t matter, Kit. Not when you fight against this kind of power, this kind of money. It’s use-”
I couldn’t help myself. I kissed him.
He stood motionless for a second then his arms were around me. He crushed me to him, holding me tight while his lips opened mine and he deepened the kiss with a passion that robbed me of breath. Then he suddenly broke the contact, but one hand remained fisted in my hair, keeping me still.
“I don’t need your pity, Kit. So if this isn’t the beginning of something special between us, tell me now, so I can go. Don’t toy with me.”
“Pity?” I managed a little smile, even though I could barely speak. “After the way you courted me? Sure, it’s pity. I’m absolutely pitying you.”
I kissed him again and this time he didn’t stop.
A sudden chill sent shivers down my spine and I realized one of his hands was under my sweater, on my bare skin. It was cold and it was delicious and I wanted more.
It raised slowly, caressing my back with a feathery touch until suddenly I felt his fingers on my breast and I gasped in his mouth.
“I want to see you,” he whispered, breaking the kiss, and with a quick movement my sweater, and all that I wore beneath, was on the floor, in a puddle of fabric.
He didn’t say anything but his eyes flared with heat before he took my mouth again, holding me to him, one hand on my breast, the other still in my hair.
One step after the other he guided me until he found my bedroom. My knees hit the bed and we fell upon it.
“I wanted this… for so long…” He murmured, leaving my lips to trail his own down my neck.
I gasped again when I felt both his hands cupping my bottom, but this time I helped him in taking everything off me. I didn’t want even a stitch of fabric between us.
Then I was bare to his gaze and he looked at me with such longing that I felt tears prick my eyes.
“I tried to deny it, but it’s of no use.” I told him, caressing his face, raising my head to kiss him. “I’m tired of pretending I don’t want you.”
Touching the warm skin under his clothes sent a shiver through my fingers, straight to the rest of me and I helped him out of everything he was wearing, smiling in satisfaction when he was at last naked beside me. His muscles twitched as I touched him and I enjoyed every murmured oath, every hitch of his breath.
“I’ll never let you go after this,” he swore, gathering me in his arms. “You’re mine now. You’re mine forever.”
****
Was it still night when he dressed and left my bed? Still night when he kissed me and promised we’d find a way to be together? I really don’t know. It may have been. But inside me a raging sun was rising and turning a blind eye was useless. I smiled and accepted defeat, inevitable as it was. He had succeeded in making me fall in love with him.
#FFxivWrite2022 #FFxivWrite #FFxiv
Misty 